CHAPTER IV - The Culture of the Individual - Part 2

THE ANGLE OF PARENTHOOD

I began with the angle of
citizenship for two definite reasons: first, because it is a basic rule in
esotericism to argue always from the universal to the particular, and secondly,
the theme of citizenship, of the relationship of the unit to the whole and of
the individual to the state, is the all-engrossing topic today in world
affairs. With it newspapers, radio dialogues and governmental appeals all
deal. This subject necessarily embodies the whole problem of individual
freedom and of collective responsibility. This subtle relationship must be
understood and expressed by humanity in line [126] with
the underlying principles of the entire human and planetary structure. This
structure is that of an all-embracing Hierarchy. In spite of the
rationalisation of men's minds, this Hierarchy exists and extends from the atom
of substance at the very depth of manifestation to the entire solar system; it
expresses in its graded ascent every type of consciousness, from that of the
infinitesimally small to that of the infinitely great. It is with a small
section of the hierarchical structure—and a very small section at that—that we
are engaged. Our field of investigation is that of the fourth Creative
Hierarchy, which is the hierarchy of human beings; it concerns the relations of
the members of this hierarchy within its hierarchical periphery; it deals also
with a possible range of existence in the subhuman realms on a lower rung of
the ladder of hierarchical existence, and with that hierarchical structure
which is found immediately above the human in the scale of beings that of the
fifth or spiritual kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

With that great hierarchical
unit which we call the animal kingdom, the third kingdom in nature, man is
definitely related through the medium of his animal, etheric and astral
bodies. He is also related to the kingdom of souls, because his own soul is an
integral part of that kingdom, just as his physical body is an integral part of
the animal kingdom. The aspect of himself which is strictly and specifically
human is the mind or mental body; this is essentially the organ of relationship
to all other human races.

In connection with our
subject, therefore, I would have you bear in mind that the "threads of
lighted consciousness" which we unfailingly create, and which eventually
form the antahkarana, have to be woven between each and every hierarchical
unit, and that within the human kingdom itself these connecting relationships
and bridging factors have to be established between unit and unit and between
group and group.

In the earlier stages this is
effected on a mass scale by [127] means of the
influence of the prevailing culture and civilisation. This, through its
external impact and through the medium of its telepathic influence, makes a
gradual and slow change, for at the beginning of the evolutionary process
development is so slow as to be scarcely recognisable. Inevitably, however,
subjective changes are wrought in the life of the individual. As evolution
proceeds the process becomes increasingly rapid, until today in the so-called
civilised countries, the areas affected by civilisation are speedily widening
and the cultural effects are as rapidly deepening.

It is hard for the modern
thinker to conceive of that time when there was no racial, national or blended
religious consciousness such as is expressing itself in the world today. Even
the most imaginative man is unable to visualise a state of mind wherein the
consciousness was purely instinctive, self-engrossed in the physical sense, and
unable to register any wider contacts than those of mate, offspring, and the
call of physical appetites. Some study of such a state of consciousness has
been attempted in connection with the evolution of the tribes which are fast
dying out in the modern world, but even here it is impossible to make adequate
allowance for the subtler impressions and influences which are the result of
united thought and inner mental pressure of the civilised part of humanity.
Gradually the world of men has become increasingly self-aware and is being
sharply differentiated (with the relationship at the same time recognised) from
the animal. The state of consciousness related to the kingdom of souls is
divided into various psychological schools, or is termed either occult or
mystical.

We could therefore, in
connection with the consciousness of humanity, divide the entire subject into
three parts:

1. That concerning the
tangible apparatus, the animal body, and the response mechanism whereby
objective and outer contacts are made possible.

2. That concerning the inner
or psychological life of [128] man. This
consists mainly of desire, aspiration, ambition and mental activity, and all of
these can manifest either in their animal, psychical, mental or spiritual
forms.

3. That concerning the
spiritual life of man and his relationship to the world of souls, which
involves, incidentally, his relationship to his own soul.

As time has progressed, these
three developing aspects in the realm of consciousness have brought humanity to
the recognition, not only of man's own inner personal relationships
(incidentally leading to an understanding of his own physical, psychological
and mental equipment), but they have brought mankind also to a realisation of
the various human group relationships of which the first and the most important
hitherto has been the family group-unit. It is here that one of the major
distinctions between the human state of consciousness and that of the animal
has developed, through the divine imposition of the Law of Necessity. This law
has provided opportunity for the development of the sense of responsibility for
the care of the family. Once an animal or a bird can fend for itself
physically, it is cast off by the parent or parents and left to its own
resources. In the case of the human family, the physical care of the child, as
well as its psychological unfoldment, has gradually been extended until either
the parent or the church, the community or the state, is responsible for him
for many years—the time element varying according to the country of birth and
social status.

This has entirely altered the
aspect of affairs and the first group, therefore, of which any individual child
becomes normally aware is the family group as a unit in the community. In that
particular group relationship, throughout the ages (both symbolically and
indeed in fact), the following factors—underlying the very structure of
existence itself—[129] are preserved and
developed and are held before the race as that which is ultimately ideal:

1. The recognition of
hierarchical status, which is, in the last analysis, the relation of the
lesser to the greater, of the weaker to the stronger and of the more
experienced to the less experienced. Thereby the sense of protection is
developed, which is the working out of one form of the love aspect in the
universe.

2. The recognition of
responsibility, inherited, applied or shouldered. This is the relation of
the older to the younger, of the wise to the ignorant. Thereby the need of
providing opportunity for the unfoldment of knowledge is developed.

3. The recognition of the
faculty of forgiveness, which is, or rather should be, the expression of
the relationship between unit and unit within the larger group, or of group and
group within a still larger whole. Forgiveness is essentially the process
whereby each gives to each along psychical lines, and it is one of the
rudimentary expressions of the quality of self-sacrifice which is, in its turn,
an aspect of the will nature of Deity. Being therefore related to the monadic
or will life, it is as yet completely misunderstood and misinterpreted. It is
in reality the sense of synthesis or of identification and of "each for
all and all for each." This sense is being developed today as never
before, but it is still so embryonic that words do not help in explaining it.
This faculty of forgiveness is not a form of magnanimous forgetting or
overlooking, neither is it a gesture of superiority whereby the slate is wiped
clean. It is the very breath of life itself—the giving of all to all and for
all.

4. The recognition of
group interplay within the larger world relationship—justly, harmoniously
and rhythmically. [130] It is the sense
of right relations, carried forward consciously and harmoniously developed.

In the period which is
coming, and under the influence of the new education, these four basic
recognitions will be inculcated and taught to every child in school and
college. They will thus govern and develop the new form of family unit which
must inevitably come into existence.

The family group (like all
else in human affairs) has shared in the general separativeness, selfishness
and individual, isolated exclusiveness, based on class distinctions, inherited
tradition, racial attitudes and national custom. Families (under any category
and bracket) present a united front to the world; parents defend their own
children and position and situation, right or wrong; family pride, tradition,
pedigree are overemphasised, leading to the different barriers which today
separate man from man, family from family and group from group. The grip of
the past upon families is a factor which is largely responsible for the revolt
of modern youth against parental control, though other factors—such as
rebellion against enforced religion and old outworn standards and
philosophies—are equally responsible. However, under the coming world order,
educators will prepare the young people in school and college for participation
in an active and consciously realised group life. For this they will be
prepared by training them in the recognition of the four factors I have listed
as essential to human progress at this time. These will, when grasped and
practiced, produce the needed right relationships and eventually a harmonious
world.

Hierarchy, responsibility,
group interplay, and forgiveness or sacrifice—these are the four categories of
recognition which will enable each person to do his part and take his share in
bridging between person and person, between group and group, and between nation
and nation, thus establishing that new world of recognised corporate
relationships [131]
which will eventually produce the
civilisation of light and love which will be characteristic of the Aquarian
Age.

It is these four concepts
which lie behind the Science of the Antahkarana, the Science of Meditation, and
the Science of Service. Their connotations have to be interpreted in no
sentimental sense, or in the coin of current ideas, but always from the angle
of a trained intelligence and of a spiritually developed consciousness.

Parenthood will not be
regarded primarily as an animal function or as a purely social or economic
function, which are the usual lines of approach at this present time. The
establishing of a deliberately prepared or constructed thread of light (as a
definite part of the world-antahkarana) between parent and child, even in the
prenatal stages, will be carefully taught. Thus a close rapport will be
brought about "in the light" yet without establishing undue mental
control and authority. This latter sentence will show you how impossible it
has been to date to hasten the teaching of this new science of the
antahkarana. Today it is beginning to be possible to lay the foundation for
this new teaching, because the young people in every land are forcing upon
their parents and their teachers the idea of their essential and determined
independence. The revolt of youth, in spite of all the immediate and
individual disasters, has been a desirable thing and has prepared the way for
the establishing of right and better relations, based upon the premises which I
have laid down.

It is of course impossible
for me to do more than indicate here the basis of the new education which will
prepare the youth of the world for the responsibilities and duties of
parenthood. The entire problem is tied up with that of sex, and also with the
problem of the state and its control, far more than is generally conceded.
Those are two problems which are only emerging today into their full
significance, and with them I cannot here deal. Parenthood is the result, and
the ordained result, of the relation of two animal [132] bodies, and I would have you ponder—even if
ineffectually—upon the wider group implications of this statement. Parenthood
is what makes a state, a nation, and a group possible as far as manifestation
is concerned, and here again the vastness of the problem is staggering.
Parenthood has also a close symbolic relationship to the Hierarchy, for the
family unit is the symbol upon earth of the Hierarchy, and it is through the
two facts of sexual relationship and physical birth that the vast Hierarchy of
Souls can achieve physical manifestation and attain spiritual perfection in the
three worlds of human evolution. One could (and this fact should be carefully
borne in mind) divide the Hierarchy into two basic groups:

1. Those souls who have
reached perfection and achieved the status of divine servers.

2. Those souls who are in the
processes of evolution and passing through the periods of continual
incarnation.

The idea of generation, birth
and subsequent manifestation runs like a guiding thread through all esoteric
thought. The ancient teachers of the race, sent out by the Hierarchy from time
to time, ever employed the symbolism of natural process in order to illustrate
and make clear the needed instruction, and lay that spiritual foundation of
truth which will in the coming age lead the race into new ways and a new manner
of thought. For the esotericist, there is the process of birth into the
darkness of physical incarnation which—in its turn—is the foreordained
preparatory process which leads to birth into light, carried forward in the
light and producing the externalisation of the body of light. This continuing
process (for in all ages this birth into light has been going forward) will
produce that future world of light which it is the purpose of the natural
processes of evolution to reveal. This is the "second birth" spoken
of [133] in the New Testament, in which a man is "born
again" into the world of light and love.

From the angle of the new
education, these new concepts will govern the mental attitude of parents in the
coming civilisation, and for this the adolescent must be prepared. It is the
misinterpretation of the newer concepts which is prevalent at this time and is
thus producing the emphasis laid—in certain countries and among nationalists of
all countries—upon the necessity to increase the birth rate. Attention is now
being paid to birth rate, its rise and fall, to correct care of mothers and
children, even in the prenatal period, and to the education of parents
everywhere. Out of all this, new ideas and attitudes must eventually arise
which will be in line with the coming world culture and concepts. But today,
the motive for this solicitude is wrong. The interior impulse to deal with the
whole problem of parenthood in a newer and better way is right. The
objectives, however, which are held before the race are not the highest or the
most desirable. The necessity of the times will eventually produce radical
changes in the approach to family life, parenthood and the training of
children, and for this a nucleus is preparing the way—or can do so if faithful,
attentive and intelligent work is done.

TRENDS INDICATIVE OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

As I said before, this
subject of parenthood and child training is too great for ample or satisfactory
discussion in these brief instructions, but certain statements can be made
which will be indicative of future developments and point the way to where the
changed attitude may be anticipated. Let me list them as follows:

1. The emphasis in the future
will shift from the urge to produce large families to that of producing quality
and intelligence in the offspring. This will include that science of
which eugenics is the distorted and [134] exoteric
indication. When the fact of the etheric body with its force centres is
scientifically established, the above prophecy will assume significance and
meaning.

2. The need of an increasing
birthrate will be eventually regarded as erroneous, and this for three reasons
which it would profit you to study:

a. Many souls are rapidly
achieving perfection and passing away altogether from our planetary life. This
process will be intensified during the coming Aquarian Age. It should be
remembered that the door will be shut for some time as yet upon the animal
kingdom, and for a long period no individualisation will culminate in
materialisation into physical bodies. Technically, any individualisation which
may take place will be that which is technically called "individualisation
into pralaya, there to await the inevitable call." There will be,
therefore, no necessity for a massed and hurried creation of human forms.

b. The economic situation
will make it necessary that certain physical restrictions should be imposed,
because it is now evident that beyond a certain point the planet cannot
support humanity. This is more fundamental in its implications than you can
imagine. Again, we have evidence of a growing realisation of the race along
this particular line; that realisation is as yet distorted and much
misunderstood and is today producing the promiscuous use of contraceptive methods.
As the intelligence of the race is developed (and that is going on apace), as
the Laws of Rhythm and Approach are grasped, it will then be found that there
are certain innate reactions which will negate conception, and that then the
mechanical means will no longer be required. This sounds as yet extremely [135] vague and almost impossible, but the race is rapidly
achieving personality control (e'en though our idea of rapidity may not be
yours) and this, in its turn, must produce certain automatic and inherent
changes. This is a point which must be grasped by esotericists.

c. The widespread promiscuity
of the sexes, and the rule in many countries which entitles a man to possess
many wives (which is an insult to the woman), will eventually and inevitably
cease. It is, in the last analysis, a form of legalised prostitution, and the
fact that it has the endorsement of tradition and centuries of practice does
not mitigate this position which I take. Through this lack of regulation and
of essential rhythm, the natural consequences have occurred, and millions of
souls have been brought into incarnation who were never intended at this
time to incarnate and achieve exoteric manifestation. This fact is largely
responsible for much of the present economic distress and for the modern
planetary dilemma. The economic situation and the necessity to provide for the
unduly large population of the planet lies behind much of the aggression and
greed of the nations down the ages, and for the effort being made today as
never before to provide better and more adequate living conditions. War has
consequently been the inevitable result of this undue and unlimited propagation
of the human species. This lack of sexual control has brought into the world
thousands of unwanted children whose appearance is solely the result of
accidental and uncontrolled sexual relations, and in no way indicates the
planned intention of parents—planned because intended to offer experience to
incarnating souls, with the conscious intent of [136] offering the opportunity to hasten the "birth
into the light" of those particular souls, thus rendering service to the
divine plan.

3. The science of eugenics
and of sex hygiene and the development of mentally controlled relationships
will steadily grow. Much that is now taught along these lines is erroneous and
wrongly motivated, being based upon fear, expediency and the desire for
improved racial attributes and physical perfection. The right form of
scientific sex control, leading to those right conditions in which souls may
incarnate, cannot be imposed by law. The desired ends may be aided by
educational methods and already this is being done in a tentative and embryonic
manner; but the real change in human consciousness which is needed will appear
only as the race itself is brought under a rhythmic law—under which, for
instance, the animal lives function, or the seasonal law under which forms in
the vegetable kingdom operate—thus transferring the whole concept on to a
higher turn of the evolutionary spiral. This, when it is brought about, will
produce certain fundamental changes—regulated sex life, an organised parental
life, and mental differences in the racial attitude towards the sex relation
and its ordained consequence, Birth.

4. As yet, it is only the
religious person who thinks in terms of the two necessitated and inevitable
births, the physical and the spiritual, and he thinks of the relation between
the two as purely symbolic and not in any way to be interpreted literally. Yet
there is a close relation and an analogy between the two which, as time
elapses, will become more clear. There can be no new birth, no creation of the
"body of light," and no "manifestation of the sons of God"
apart from the process of physical incarnation. There can be no fusion of the
opposites of soul and personality [137] apart
from the physiological processes of sex, and I say this deliberately, for it is
in the relation of the sexes that the element of time enters into the
experience of the soul, and the understanding of this will come when the
doctrine of reincarnation is properly comprehended and taught universally. It
is here that sex magic and the inner tantric teachings have gone so woefully
astray, and been centralised upon individual development and the attainment of
some experience which is presumed to promote spiritual attainment. The
underlying idea, governing all that has been given out on the sex relation
heretofore, is twofold in its implications:

a. To provide bodies for incarnating
souls so that certain destined evolutionary unfoldments may be carried forward,
and the attainment of an equally destined and inevitable spiritual unfoldment
becomes possible.

b. To impart the scientific
procedure whereby bodies "built in the dark" may gradually be
superseded by bodies "built in the light." Thus will be brought
about the manifestation of the foundational light aspect of the world
and its underlying structure.

5. The sex relation has,
therefore, only one major objective, which is to produce physical bodies for
incarnating souls. The relation between the soul and the personality is
consequently a higher aspect of the basic sex expression of the universe, and
this relation is intended to bring about the appearance of a son of God as
light in the world, enabling him to say, as did the Christ, that he is
"the light of the world," and to fulfill the injunction, "let
your light shine." Again, the relation between humanity and the Hierarchy
is intended to produce the radiance of group light and cause to emerge, out of
these two [138]
planetary groups or bodies, through
their close fusion and scientific interrelation, that form of divine
manifestation to which the name "the Kingdom of God" has been given
in the West.

I would ask you to ponder on
these five points or statements which are only intended to be suggestive, to
evoke brooding thought and to indicate those elementary ideas which will bring
in the newer attitudes to parental responsibility. In the world today there
are many thinking men and women who are conscious of and earnestly desiring the
above, and who are working towards these ends. But the mass of the people in
their untold millions are totally unaware of the situation, either in its
economic or esoteric aspects. One of the tasks of the educator of the future
will be to teach the meaning of the Law of Rebirth, and thus bring about such a
profound change in the racial attitude to life and sex, to birth and
parenthood, that sex rhythm, cyclic experience, psychological preparation and
directed, controlled body-building may go forward and supersede the present
methods, which are based upon an uncontrolled response to the sex urge and
desire, and the unthinking procreation of children. The vast population of the
world today is the result of an animal response to those urges and of the
general promiscuity, which is perhaps the outstanding factor, esoterically
speaking and from the standpoint of the Hierarchy, of the present world
distress, economic difficulties and national aggressions. Think this out, for
it holds a clue.

Summing up very briefly, I
would say that the objective before the race as it enters into the new age is
to "create in the light through the ordained activity of the
light-body." This involves the understanding of the different light
expressions—the light of understanding, the light of a prearranged and
comprehended process and the light of experience. With these more subtle
aspects of light leading, [139] controlling and
directing the human consciousness in relation to racial generation and the
perpetuation of the species, and with the science of light (a science dealing
with that which concerns substance and form, for it must not be forgotten that
light and substance are synonymous terms) forming an integral part of the
education of parents and adolescents, we can then look forward to adjustments
and changes, which are bound to come, with confidence and assurance that all
will be well.

The motives leading to
marriage will undergo profound changes during the next one thousand years,
though the basic motive—that of love between two people—will remain unchanged
or more properly emphasised and selflessly expressed. The attitude of parents
towards their children will alter dramatically and the responsibility angle
will be continuously emphasised, though that responsibility will be concerned
primarily with the time, opportunity and correctness of producing the forms
which incarnating souls will assume. The idea of the need for rapid
procreation and the production of large families through which the state can
achieve its end will be changed. The preparation of adults for the duties of
parenthood and their training in the basic necessities of the coming child will
shift increasingly to the mental and spiritual levels of consciousness and be
less given to physical preparations. The light which is in the parents, which
in the days to come will be seen clairvoyantly by an increasing number of
people, will be scientifically related to the embryonic light in the child, and
the thread of light connecting parent and child (of which the umbilical cord is
the exoteric symbol) will be skillfully and patiently constructed. The child
will come into incarnation with its light body already embedded and functioning
in the physical body and this will be due to the intelligent mental work of the
parents. This is not so today, except in the case of very advanced egos, for
the light body is inchoate and diffused and simply hovers over the physical
form of the child, waiting [140] for an
opportunity to enter and irradiate the consciousness. Thus will be brought
about an integration in the light substance of the planet which is lacking at
this time; and the production of this integration will be definitely initiated
by the trained parents of the new age and facilitated, as the child matures, by
the teaching and influence of the illumined educator.

This all sounds to you
necessarily peculiar and too abstract and farfetched to make much sense. I
would have you remember that much which is familiar to you today and which
constitutes a definite part of the recognised facts of daily life would, a few
hundred years ago, have been regarded as equally peculiar, incomprehensible and
impossible. What is really taking place is the hastening of the processes of
light manifestation, and this has become possible because of the point of
attainment of humanity and the increased stimulation which is being applied to
the race by the Hierarchy, assisted by forces emanating from Shamballa.

THE ANGLE OF PERSONALITY CONTROL

Much that I could say here
would simply be a repetition of that which you already know and have been
taught. Many of you who are reading my words here are steeped in the ideas
which I have been seeking to impart to humanity for the past years, for it was
in 1919 that I first started writing through the cooperation of A.A.B. In
these writings I have sought to do two things:

1. Teach the basic necessity
for certain great fusions—individual, racial and spiritual:

a. The fusion or integration
of the different aspects of man's nature—physical, emotional and mental. When
this has been accomplished we shall have the manifestation of the integrated
elemental forces to which we give the name of the Personality, producing [141] the manifestation of a powerful, self-directed, high
grade human being.

b. The fusion of the
personality and the soul. This has to be carried out consciously and
deliberately, with the willingness of these related parts of a great divine
whole to see the personality subjected to changes and transmutations, produced
as a result of soul contact. This will lead to the manifestation of the
indwelling soul, the Christ consciousness, the Solar Angel.

c. The ultimate fusion of
humanity with the Hierarchy, producing the manifestation of God's Kingdom on
earth. This will be the consummation of all the other fusions, and will have
produced certain great planetary, racial and national fusions which are
incidental and necessary to progress and its inevitable results.

These fusions are not carried
forward as listed above in an ordered sequential fashion. There is much
overlapping and lack of balance in the process, but though there may be
differences and difficulties in the lengthy process, the end is inevitable and
unalterable. The Kingdom of God, the consummation of it all, will appear upon
the planet.

2. Inculcate the methods,
productive of quality and not just of quantity, which will facilitate the
emergence of certain great divine characteristics. These will, in due time,
change the world and bring in the new attitudes and states of consciousness.
These, when they are matured and recognised, will bring about the appearance of
the culture and civilisation which is, for the race, the next planned and
desired development.

Need I, therefore, talk to
you about personality development and control? Is not that something which you
have [142] considered and worked at for years? Can I tell you
anything of a practical nature that you do not already know and strive to
attain? Shall I increase your present responsibility by repetition? I think
not. The new culture will emerge and come into being, as all of those who have
a consciousness of light and the goal of pure service (which such a
consciousness inevitably entails) proceed with their appointed task—a
self-appointed task in every case—of living and teaching the truth about light,
as opportunity offers.